Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, has addressed supporters at her political party headquarters in the city of Rangoon.

Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, has addressed supporters at her political party headquarters in the city of Rangoon.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winner was released yesterday from more than seven years of house arrest.

No restrictions have been placed on her but it is still unclear how much freedom she will be allowed.

This morning, Aung San Suu Kyi, told supporters that she bore no antagonism towards the military junta that had kept her under house arrest and, she urged people to work for democracy in Burma.

‘I do not have any antagonism toward the people who kept me under house arrest…the security officials treated me well. I want to ask them (the junta) to treat the people well also,’ she told a news conference after delivering a speech to thousands of supporters outside the headquarters of her now-defunct National League for Democracy party.

‘I am willing to work hand in hand with other democratic forces in the country,’ she added.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, freed from seven years of house arrest, told thousands of wildly cheering supporters Sunday that she would continue to fight for human rights and the rule of law in the military-ruled nation.

She spoke to about 5,000 people who crowded around the dilapidated headquarters of her political party, the first stop for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate after leaving the lakeside residence that had been her prison.

“I believe in human rights and I believe in the rule of law. I will always fight for these things,” she said. “I want to work with all democratic forces and I need the support of the people.”

Inside, she met with Yangon-based diplomats and was later scheduled to talk with the media, attend the funeral of a close friend and pay a customary visit to the city’s sacred Shwedagon pagoda.

“This is an unconditional release. No restrictions are placed on her,” her lawyer Nyan Win said.

There was speculation whether she would use her newfound freedom to challenge the ruling military head-on, or be more conciliatory.

In her Sunday speech, she did not sound a strident note, speaking about working toward national reconciliation and saying she bore no grudge against those who had held her in detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years.

She thanked her well-wishers and asked them to pray for those still imprisoned by the regime. Human rights groups say the junta hold more than 2,200 political prisoners.

In her first public appearance Saturday evening, Suu Kyi indicated she would continue with her political activity but did not specify whether she would challenge the military with mass rallies and other activities that led to her earlier detentions.

“We have a lot of things to do,” said Suu Kyi, the 65-year-old charismatic and relentlessly outspoken woman who has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the isolated and secretive nation once known as Burma. The country has been ruled by the military since 1962.

But while her release thrilled her supporters — and also clearly thrilled her — it came just days after an election that was swept by the ruling junta’s proxy political party and decried by Western nations as a sham designed to perpetuate authoritarian control….

YANGON, Myanmar — One day after being freed from house arrest, Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, addressed a wildly cheering crowd of thousands of supporters Sunday, saying she was listening to their needs and telling them not to give up hope.

“The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech,” she said in remarks reported by news agencies.

Her freedom and her immediate return to her political struggle set her on a path to a possible confrontation with the generals who had confined her to her home, out of the public eye, for 15 of the past 21 years.

“Democracy is when the people keep a government in check,” she said. “I will accept the people keeping me in check.”

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, urged her supporters to be politically active, saying, “You have to stand up for what is right.”

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate first met her supporters on Saturday evening, immediately after being read a release order in her home, waving and smiling in a long-sleeved pink shirt and with a flower in her hair.

“We haven’t seen each other for so long, I have so much to tell you,” she said then, immediately re-establishing the bond that has made her such a challenge to the nation’s military rulers. It had been more than seven years since her last arrest, a period of near total separation from the world.

In what seemed a gesture of conciliation, the government mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, reported her release in positive terms, saying that she had been granted a pardon due to her good behavior and that the police

“stand ready to give her whatever help she needs.”

It said she was being treated with leniency because she is the daughter of the nation’s founding hero, the assassinated general U Aung San, and “viewing that peace, tranquillity and stability will prevail and that no malice be held against each other.”

Her release, just five days after an election that recast the government with a civilian face, suggested that the generals were confident of their position and ready to face down the devotion she still commands both in her country and abroad.

The scene at the gates of her compound suggested that her popularity remained strong. When the police removed barricades from around her villa on Saturday afternoon, crowds flooded into the street.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi spoke only briefly, saying, “If we are united, we can get what we want.” The crowd then broke into the singing of the national anthem.

“She is our mother, she is our mother!” a woman cried.

After someone handed her a flower, the crowd pleaded, “Put it in your hair!”

She obliged.

It was the kind of outpouring she had experienced twice before on earlier releases from house arrest, in 1995 and 2002. Both times she was detained again after testing the limits of her freedom.

A government broadcast Saturday said Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi had been freed without conditions. There appeared to be no other government statement on Saturday regarding her release….

But the Obama administration says it wants to see the release of more political prisoners and other positive steps before easing pressure on the isolated regime.

Reporting from Washington —

Obama administration officials cheered the release of activist Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar on Saturday but said they needed to see more positive steps before easing pressure on the isolated regime.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she joined “billions of people all around the world to welcome the long-overdue release” of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from house arrest in Yangon, the former capital.

She said the United States was calling on Myanmar’s leader to make the release “unconditional, so she may travel, associate with fellow citizens, express her views and participate in political activities without restrictions.”

Clinton also called on the military government, which faces international sanctions for human rights abuses, to release all of its 2,100 political prisoners.

But U.S. officials expressed little confidence that the regime wants to begin reconciliation within Myanmar.

A senior administration official noted that the government had waited until last week’s disputed elections were over before freeing Suu Kyi, to make certain the revered activist’s presence didn’t threaten its decades-long control of the country, also known as Burma.

The security of Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a serious concern, but she says she wants to listen to the voice of the people and will resume tours across the country, according to leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

“Before the Depayin incident in 2003, there wasn’t a state of mind in the military or other forces to assassinate her though she faced a series of verbal harassment,” said Win Tin, one of the party’s founders and secretary of the NLD. “But after the Depayin incident, we saw that there had been a state of mind to assassinate her.”

Suu Kyi’s security will be a serious concern as she tries to reach out to the grassroots people….

In her first meeting with associates following her release from house arrest, Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told the leaders of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and other opposition leaders on Saturday evening that she wanted to first listen to the people before engaging in new activities and wanted to form a strong “people’s network.”

According to NLD leader Ohn Kyaing, Suu Kyi’s first words at the meeting were: “I want to listen to the people of Burma’s voices. I want to obey the people’s wishes. So I want to engage in activities that put me in touch with the people.”….